MPs have begun debate in the House of Commons on the Liberal government’s proposed bill to delay until next year the expansion of eligibility for receiving medical assistance in dying (MAiD).
Bill C-39, sponsored by Justice Minister David Lametti, aims to amend the Criminal Code to delay the eligibility expansion until March 2024. Eligibility is currently set to expand on March 17 to include patients whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness.
“The main objective of this bill is to ensure the safe assessment and provision of MAiD in all circumstances where a mental illness forms the basis for the request,” Lametti said in the House on Feb. 13.
The Conservatives, NDP, and the Bloc Québécois have all signaled their support for the bill.
Though Conservatives say they would support C-39, they are also arguing that the expansion should not happen at all.
Conservative MP Michael Cooper criticized the government’s planned expansion of MAiD to those with mental illness, saying in debate today that it would be “an absolute disaster, and with which certainty would result in vulnerable persons prematurely ending their lives.”
“What this Liberal government should be doing is abandoning all together this radical, reckless, and dangerous expansion of MAiD,” Cooper said.
Earlier in the debate, Lametti argued that the MAiD expansion would be available only to a “small fraction of individuals who suffer from long-standing mental disorders” and does not “allow for a person suffering from depression or anxiety to immediately get MAiD.”
NDP MP Alistair MacGregor, who is on the Special Joint Committee on MAiD, said the committee’s final report on its study of Canada’s MAiD laws and the possible expansion thereof will be tabled in Parliament on Feb. 17.
MacGregor also expressed his support for Bill C-39.
“It is a support for a bill that is going to put in a necessary one-year extension of the deadline so that we can make sure that we get the standards of practice right,” MacGregor said.
The bill is currently in second reading and will undergo a parliamentary committee study if voted through.
